Cornmeal Recipes

I love the flavor combination of beets and sage; I've used the same marriage of flavors in soups, pasta dishes and vinaigrettes on multiple occasions. This time, I made a variation of a polenta appetizer and flavored it with this particular pairing.

The beets gave a regal color to the bite-size portions and I repeated the sage flavor in the cream topping. The corn nugget garnish was my "cherry on top" and was a reminder of the cornmeal used for the polenta.

You’ve probably noticed over the years that our family hosts a large number of dinner parties. My favorite part is creating new appetizers because it really levels the playing field for me. First I come up with a flavor combination that I know works incredibly well as my basis, then turn it into a miniature, aesthetically pleasing, unique piece of art. You know the saying: you eat with your eyes first!

I developed this new stuffing recipe when I had leftover polenta croutons I had fried for making salad. The preparation is the same as for bread stuffing. I flavored the polentastuffing with earthy ingredients such as brown mushrooms, chanterelle mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes, red, orange and yellow bell peppers and marinated artichokes.

This stuffing version is perfect if you have gluten-inloterant guests on Thanksgiving. And you won't be missing bread, either. Also, you could serve it tamale-style in corn husks to keep it warm.

This polenta crouton salad was my dear friend Carole's idea. Carole is the editor of PhamFatale.com, and someone recently gave her the title of "Literary Swiffer," which I completely approve of. She always comments on the meals I feature on the website. When I posted polenta fries, Carole suggested another version I hadn't considered. She used to eat at a Mexican restaurant in San Francisco that served polenta croutons in their salad and she told me she could have made a meal on the croutons alone!

To make the dish, cubes of polenta are deep-fried until crisp and tossed with mixed alfalfa sprouts, home-grown Sugar Sweet cherry tomatoes, fresh cubed mango and a bit of cheese. Thanks for the inspiration, Carole!

Every year, the garlic festival is held the last weekend of July, in Gilroy, California. I think Lulu, the girls and I are going to attend this year.

Today I was inspired by the upcoming garlicky event to make something to keep away the vampires. I sliced a slab of polenta into the shape of French fries and flavored the golden polenta fries with parsley and fried garlic. I nestled them in a cone of parchment paper. The sweet smell of garlic is intoxicating. They can be served as a snack and they also make a wonderful summer side dish for any type of grilled meat. Plus, they are more nutritious than plain old fries.

The girls were fooled and mistook the polenta fries for potato fries due to their crispy exterior and golden color. I’ll have to make more; they were fighting over the crumbs!

You can catch me live today on Blog Talk Radio. I'll be talking about my favorite sandwiches and of course my new cookbook "Banh Mi" Wednesday, July 10th at 4:30 p.m EST.

Polenta is a fine-ground corn that is pretty easy to prepare. It can either be prepared soft and creamy, or dry and firm. Personally, I prefer the consistency of the firm version. The preparation is fairly simple; just constantly whisk the cornmeal in liquid until each grain swells up, refrigerate and cut into slices. Right before you're ready to serve, place the polenta on a grill pan to create some nice grill marks.